Colin Trevorrow has just been confirmed as the director for Jurassic World 3. The filmmaker called the shots on the first film in the trilogy, which broke box office records upon its release in the summer of 2015. Trevorrow was able to parlay that success into an opportunity to helm Star Wars: Episode IX for Lucasfilm, but was taken off that project last fall due to creative differences with the studio. He has remained involved with the Jurassic franchise while all that was going down, co-writing the script for this summer's Fallen Kingdom (which is is also an executive producer on).
Though Fallen Kingdom is still months away from release as of this writing, Universal is forging ahead with the third and final chapter of the new trilogy. Jurassic World 3 was slated for a 2021 release earlier this year, with Emily Carmichael (Pacific Rim Uprising) announced as the screenwriter. As it turns out, she'll be getting a helping hand from Trevorrow on the script, as he's said to be a writer in addition to directing.
Related: Stop The Jurassic World Franchise
None other than Steven Spielberg broke the news to EW, telling the outlet, "Colin Trevorrow is going to write and direct the third Jurassic World story." Spielberg, who launched the series back in 1993, will once again be an executive producer on the upcoming sequel.
On one hand, this development makes a lot of sense. Trevorrow has been spearheading the revived Jurassic Park series from the start, so it's fitting he'll help bring it to its conclusion. Additionally, he's already demonstrated he can deliver a crowd-pleasing throwback, as evidenced by the first World's global box office take of $1.6 billion. That being said, Jurassic World received criticism for generic characterizations and some puzzling creative choices (Bryce Dallas Howard's heels, militarized raptors), so it'll be interesting to see what Trevorrow brings to the table this time around. Additionally, his status as a Hollywood up-and-comer took a bit of a hit in the midst of reports he was taken off of Star Wars 9 for being difficult. However, Spielberg doesn't seem to have any concerns about Trevorrow, and hopefully the director learned from his first big-budget experience.
Jurassic World was able to capitalize on audiences' nostalgia for the property by being the first new franchise entry in 15 years. It appears as if Fallen Kingdom will have more of an uphill climb, as the pre-release buzz has been marred by an uninspired marketing campaign indicating the series could be running out of gas, from a storytelling perspective. Still, Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona earned high marks for films such as The Impossible and A Monster Calls, so maybe he has some surprises up his sleeve for Jurassic and can set the stage for a thrilling third movie.
MORE: Jurassic World 2 Needs To Make Dinosaurs Scary Again
Source: EW
